Well it’s here. September. Just as I predicted. You heard it here first, as the ol’ saying goes.
With the turning of the calendar page comes a favourite pastime of Sens fans- overreacting to quotes from the Head Coach. DJ Smith was on TSN 1200 this morning and coughed up his thoughts on a number of key issues heading into Camp.
Some highlights from this morning’s interview.
-At the outset, it’s pretty clear that the Head Coach is excited. “We’re significantly better”, he said with a hint of well duh in his voice. When asked for his reflections on the off-season changes, DJ Smith dove right in and had all sorts of good things to say about both Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux. It had the sounds of a guy who has been doing a whole lot of thinking about that exact question for the last couple months. Us too, DJ. Us too.
-The Power Play. This will ultimately fall under the responsibility of Davis Payne but the Head Coach has also done some thinking there too. He wasn’t tipping his hand about any particular combinations but did talk about the fact that they’ll be in a situation where they’ll have to share the opportunities a little bit. And with seven guys that could easily be on that first unit- Tkachuk, Norris, Batherson, DeBrincat, Stützle, Giroux and Chabot- this will be a storyline to watch early in the preseason. How the Coaching Staff ensures that all those guys get quality opportunities on the man advantage and how they utilize a potential second unit is doing to be fascinating to watch. For what it’s worth, he did close his power play thoughts with, “I don’t see a power play without Thomas Chabot at the top”. So five forwards seems unlikely.
-Line combinations. Once the puck hits the ice in October, it becomes one of the biggest day-to-day talking points around these parts. The Head Coach seems pretty certain about how he wants to start the year anyway. At least in the top six. Brady Tkachuk-Josh Norris-Drake Batherson and Alex DeBrincat-Tim Stützle-Claude Giroux. Yea, that’ll do. Spreading the talent around is an option too with Mathieu Joseph, Shane Pinto and Alex Formenton all in the mix up front. Something like this to start maybe.
Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
DeBrincat-Stützle-Giroux
Formenton-Pinto-Joseph
Gambrell-Kelly-Watson
-The blueline. Like the rest of us, this is where DJ seems to have the most concern and the most question marks. He plans to start Thomas Chabot with Artem Zub on the first pairing and then beyond that, it’s extremely up in the air. Jake Sanderson was the third name mentioned then Erik Brannstrom. Then he rhymed off the veteran options including Hamonic, Holden and Zaitsev. DJ then kicked around the names of a couple young guys including Lassi Thomson and Jacob Bernard-Docker. No surprises anywhere in there. In DJ’s words, the blueline is “adequate”. Not exactly a glowing review from the Head Coach but he emphasized the importance of young guys (Sanderson, Brannstrom) taking a step forward as something that will help the outlook back there. He did also talk about some potential tinkering by the GM.
-Goaltending. This is going to be a battle all season. Not for who is on the roster obviously because Anton Forsberg and Cam Talbot are locks. But the battle for starts is going to be a day to day thing. If I had to predict a day one starter based on DJ’s comments though, it’s Anton Forsberg. It’s his starting job to lose, really. At the same time, Smith had some high praise for Talbot acquisition. They’ll need both of these guys going over the course of an 82-game season though so really, it’s a good problem to have.
-Tim Stützle. It’s hard to have an interview without someone in the organization drooling over Tim Stützle. When asked to talk about who he is most excited about heading into a new season, he immediately went to Timmy, again comparing him to Pavel Bure. Interestingly enough, he followed that up with some high praise for Parker Kelly. Like Pierre Dorion mentioned, it really sounds like Parker Kelly has a fourth line spot to lose heading into Training Camp.
